A communication network may comprise a number of network nodes connected by various communication media. The network nodes may communicate information in the form of packets over the communication media in accordance with one or more communication protocols. Each network node may have one or more elements to process the packets in accordance with the protocols. One example of such an element is a Network Interface Card (NIC). A NIC may utilize one or more buffers to store the packets prior to performing packet processing. The NIC may reduce processing cycles for the network node using efficient buffer management techniques. Consequently, there may be need for improvements in buffer management techniques to improve network performance.